About
Trail Mix, the campaign blog of the Winston-Salem Journal, is a conversation about North Carolina's elections in 2008. Come here for news and analysis on the U.S. Senate race, the governor's race and all the other statewide races. We'll also follow John Edwards as he makes his second run for the White House.
Trail Mix is written by James Romoser, the Journal's Raleigh reporter. Got a tip? E-mail me at .
From today’s print edition: Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are preparing for a final weekend push before Tuesday’s critical primary.
In the Democratic primary to take on Congresswoman Virginia Foxx, two underdogs are far behind Foxx in fundraising but will focus on getting out the vote in the primary, the Journal‘s Bertrand Gutierrez reports.
And in the Republican race for the 94th District of the N.C. House of Representatives, which represents Wilkes County, three candidates want to succeed incumbent Tracy Walker, who is not seeking re-election. The Journal‘s Monte Mitchell has a run-down.
Beverly Perdue is campaigning for governor in Winston-Salem. At noon, she will be at the Forsyth County Democratic headquarters at 1128 Burke St., and at 1 p.m., she will meet voters at Dr. J’s House of Soul Food at 1527 Martin Luther King Dr. (Perdue’s opponent, Richard Moore, is campaigning in Charlotte.)
Chelsea Clinton will also be in Winston-Salem campaigning for her mother. At 2:30 p.m., she will answer voters’ questions at Salem College. Afterward, she travels to Lexington for another event at 4:45 p.m.
Meanwhile, Barack Obama is campaigning in Charlotte. Michelle Obama is in Durham and Asheville. Bill Clinton is in Indiana, but will return to North Carolina on Sunday and Monday. And both candidates will speak tonight at the N.C. Democratic Party’s annual Jefferson-Jackson Dinner in Raleigh.
Early-voting sites (where you can still register to vote for the primary!) are still open. But not for much longer — Saturday is the last day. After that, you can vote on Tuesday, the day of the primary, but only if you’re already registered.
From today’s print edition: A run-down of the Democratic primary for U.S. Senate, which pits Greensboro state senator Kay Hagan against Chapel Hill investment banker Jim Neal. Hagan has strong support from the state’s Democratic establishment, and she cites her time as one of the most influential state legislators as proof that she is a good leader. Neal is running as anti-political outsider and has positioned himself to the left of Hagan, whom he calls Republican-lite. But Hagan has raised far more money and has slowly inflated her lead in public-opinion polls.
In other news, Media General’s Sean Mussenden takes an incisive look at trade, a key issue in North Carolina as both Democratic presidential candidates try to reach out to blue-collar voters. From the story: “The emotional debate focused on NAFTA has largely drowned out discussion of what economists say is a more pertinent trade issue in many states, including North Carolina, which holds its primary next week: That issue is trade with China.”
Hillary Clinton is running a negative ad in North Carolina.
The ad, titled “Trouble,” began running in the state last night. It criticizes Barack Obama over the nation’s housing crisis and the high price of gasoline. The ad says that Obama opposed a freeze on home foreclosures and opposes suspending the gas tax this summer. The ad is also running in Indiana.
It is the first negative TV ad by either candidate in North Carolina. You can watch it above.
Meanwhile, Clinton launched another new ad today — a decidedly positive one — featuring Wake Forest University poet Maya Angelou. You can watch that ad here.
From today’s print edition: In his first campaign stop in Winston-Salem, Barack Obama portrayed himself as a united before 2,500 people at the Joel Coliseum Annex, then angrily lashed out at his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Meanwhile, what Mike Easley’s endorsement means for Hillary Clinton’s chance.
It turns out that Winston-Salem’s mayor decided to endorse Barack Obama after all.
After initially saying he was leaning toward Obama, Mayor Allen Joines told Trail Mix last week — seemingly with a great bit of certainty — that he did not intend to endorse either candidate. But at Obama’s rally in Winston-Salem today, Joines introduced Obama and threw his support behind him.
“Winston-Salem has had to undergo a lot of change, and we still have a lot of change to come to move ourselves to a more successful, more solid economy. I believe Barack Obama is the person who can lead the change for Winston-Salem and for this country,” Joines said.
The Democratic mayors of Raleigh, Durham and Greensboro have previously endorsed Obama. Now, Joines joins them.
(Pictured above: Joines speaking at today’s Obama rally. Photo by the Journal‘s Jennifer Rotenizer.)
Barack Obama, speaking today in Winston-Salem, made his strongest denunciation yet of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the Journal‘s Michael Hewlett reports. Obama said he was outraged at the comments that Wright made Monday at the National Press Club. “Yesterday he made a caricature of himself,” Obama said. He added that his relationship with Wright, who used to be Obama’s pastor, is greatly damaged.
Wright, and by extension Obama, has been criticized for weeks after revelations of sermons that Wright gave in which he expressed vitriolic anti-American sentiment. In a major speech in Philadelphia last month, Obama said he deplored Wright’s controversial remarks but said he could not “disown” him as a person. Over the weekend, Wright re-entered the fray in several public appearances, in which he aggressively defended himself and suggested that Obama was trying to distance himself from Wright simply for political reasons.
Obama’s comments today came during a press conference that followed a rally at the Joel Coliseum Annex. At the rally, Obama continued his intensified outreach toward working-class voters. Go here for the full write-up.
RALEIGH — Gov. Mike Easley endorsed Hillary Clinton for president this morning, saying that she understands the connections between improving education and developing a strong economy.
“Hillary Clinton gets it. She gets it. It’s time for somebody to be in the White House that understands the challenges we face in this country. And they’re significant,” Easley said at N.C. State University.
Easley said he first met Clinton 18 years ago, when Easley was a prosecutor and Clinton was the first lady of Arkansas. He said he was immediately impressed by her intelligence and ideas.
Before a crowd of several hundred this morning, Clinton accepted Easley’s endorsement and praised North Carolina’s efforts to encourage biotechnology industries. She said that the state’s economic gains are directly tied to educational programs supported by Easley. The two took a tour this morning of a bio-manufacturing training and education facility in Raleigh.
Easley is the most prominent North Carolina Democrat to make an endorsement in the presidential race.
“Of course, it’s politically very meaningful,” Clinton said. “But even more than that, it’s great to have someone who really understands what we have to do to transform our country to be prepared for the 21st century. Again, it’s not going to happen just by wishing for it or hoping for it or sitting around talking about it. You have to have a plan and you have to execute that plan.”
Gov. Mike Easley will endorse Hillary Clinton tomorrow, Trail Mix has confirmed from the Clinton campaign.
The Associated Press has the full story here. Easley had previously seemed to indicate that he wouldn’t endorse either Democratic presidential candidate before the May 6 primary, but he has long been rumored to privately favor Clinton.
Update 6:45 p.m.: Tom Hendrickson, a senior adviser to the Clinton campaign in North Carolina, also confirms the news. “I think it’s a great lift for the campaign,” Hendrickson told Trail Mix. “It’s reflective of the momentum that the campaign’s building, and it’s also a compliment to their shared message and their shared values.” Hendrickson said that Easley and Clinton will appear together tomorrow morning at a campaign event and press conference. Details are expected later tonight.
Starting today, early voting in Forsyth County expands beyond the main location at the county government center downtown. Between today and May 3, county residents can also go to any of the eight satellite locations where early voting is being offered. Primary day is May 6. And as a reminder, you can register to vote (and then immediately cast your ballot) at early-voting sites.
Here is the complete list of satellite locations in Forsyth County (in addition to the main headquarter downtown at 201 N. Chestnut St., where early voting will continue):
Carver School Road Library (4915 Lansing Dr., Winston-Salem)
Kernersville Library (130 E. Mountain St., Kernersville)
Lewisville LIbrary (6490 Shallowford Rd., Lewisville)
Malloy/Jordan East Winston Heritage Center (1110 E. Seventh St., Winston-Salem)
Polo Park Recreation Center (1850 Polo Rd., Winston-Salem)
Southside Library (3185 Buchanan St., Winston-Salem)
Clark Campbell Transportation Center (corner of Fifth, Trade and Liberty streets, Winston-Salem)
Winston-Salem State University, Anderson Center (800 Price St., Winston-Salem)
More information, including the hours when these sites are open, is available on this page (PDF) provided by the Forsyth County Board of Elections. Residents of other counties should check with their local board of elections.
